Correlation between Balance Ability and Speech-Language Development in Children

Abstract

The longitudinal study was conducted in order to establish whether the success rate of reflexes related to maintaining balance at birth is in correlation with the success rate of maintaining balance in early childhood, as well as to examine the correlation of a certain level of speech and language development with the ability of maintaining balance at birth and at the age of 5. The main study group included 54 children of both genders, aged 5.0 to 5.4, whose balance ability and speech and language status were evaluated based on the battery of standardized tests, whereas the group of reflexes related to the function of the vestibular sense was clinically tested on the 3rd day upon birth, within the same sample of children. The data at birth and at the age of 5 were recorded by means of a digital camera, then scored and statistically and descriptively processed. The research results indicated a statistically significant correlation between the achieved level of balance ability in the newborns and five-year-olds, as well as between balance skills and a certain level of speech and language development in children at the age of 5. The importance of this research lies in new knowledge in the domain of maturation of vestubular function immediately after birth, given that this segment of physiology of a newborn has not so far been processed in such a way, as well as in the recognition of function of the vestibular sense as another parametre of a child’s maturation.